Comparison shopping via financial management software

ABSTRACT

The invention comprises a financial management program and one or more databases containing information on merchants and their products. The program interacts with the databases containing the product information to return the prices and availability of goods located in a designated area. The program compares prices from various merchants and displays the results to the consumer. The program also allows the consumer to compare the prices with a household budget and financial data, while keeping track of trends in the consumer&#39;s spending and buying habits.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention described below relates to data processing apparatus andmethods for processing financial data in general, and specifically to acomputerized integration of comparison shopping software into personalfinancial management software.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The proliferation of the personal computer and the rapid expansion ofInternet access in recent years have contributed significantly to thepopularity of “online” shopping among consumers worldwide. Manymerchants now provide online shopping alternatives to consumers,complete with detailed descriptions of goods and services, as well aspricing that can change immediately to reflect changing marketconditions.

Just as personal computers and the Internet have fueled the growth ofonline shopping, online shopping, in turn, has fueled the growth of anentirely new online service industry that caters to consumers lookingfor the best price on goods and services. Typically, these new serviceproviders collect product information from a variety of online shops,and then present the product information to the consumer through awebsite in a format suitable for product and price comparisons.Consequently, such websites have become known colloquially as“comparison shopping” websites.

Currently, comparison shopping websites typically implement one of twomethods of collecting product information. The first method forcomparison shopping involves the creation of a search engine that allowsa consumer to select a product of interest from a predefined list ofproducts or to insert a particular product into a search field. Once theconsumer has selected or inserted a product, the search engine searchesfor similar products in multiple merchants' websites to find the pricesand availability offered by each. The results are presented to the userthrough a webpage that lists the merchant, product, price, andavailability, along with other data particular to each comparisonshopping website. From this webpage, the consumer can choose themerchant and product that best meets the consumer's needs. Generally,the consumer then can purchase the product either from the comparisonshopping site or from the merchant's online shop or physical location.

Another popular comparison shopping solution requires more interactionwith the merchant than the method just described. Rather than searchingmerchant websites, as described above, merchants insert productinformation, such as price, product description, and availability,directly into a comparison shopping database, or they send theirinformation to a third-party host who inserts the information into thedatabase. See U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0074267 A1(published Apr. 17, 2003). When a consumer accesses this type ofcomparison shopping website, he or she enters product search criteriathrough a dynamic webpage. A web server then queries the database tofind products matching the consumer's criteria. The database returns allmatching products, which the web server displays to the consumer througha web browser. The consumer then can act upon the informationaccordingly.

To date, some industries have harnessed comparison shopping and itscapabilities better than others. The airline, rental car, hotel, andpersonal electronic industries, in particular, are well represented incomparison shopping websites. Merchants of groceries and other householdproducts, though, have not yet been able to offer an effectivecomparison shopping service. While several websites have allowedconsumers to purchase groceries online, the prices and inventory havebeen limited to single merchants.

Financial management software also has become popular with personalcomputer users. Users of such software as INTUIT's QUICKEN and MICROSOFTMONEY have always been able to track savings and checking accountbalances, credit card balances, and other spending habits. Today,though, many of these programs also allow users to retrieve bank andcredit card statements over the Internet. Generally, users also can viewspending habits and account balances in graphs and charts, which allowthe user to analyze trends and cash flow.

Thus, neither online shopping nor financial management software is new.Currently, though, consumers have no effective means for integratingtheir online shopping experience with their financial managementsoftware. The invention described below addresses the need in the artfor such a means, which would provide many benefits to the consumer.Specifically, a consumer could use such a means to integrate a personalbudget into shopping criteria, which the consumer could then combinewith a single shopping list to compare products at a variety of stores.The consumer also could transfer shopping information and comparisonresults to a mobile device, which the consumer then could take to astore for easy reference. These and other objects of the invention willbe apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention described below is an improved means for online comparisonshopping. In particular, the invention comprises one or more productdatabases and an improved financial management computer program operableto retrieve comparative product information from the product databasesand to display the comparative product information. A merchant eitherdirectly posts product information to the databases or submits theinformation to a third-party that updates and maintains the databases. Aconsumer then enters a list of desired products (a “shopping list”) intothe improved financial management program, which in turn retrieves theproduct information from the product databases. The financial managementprogram then processes the product information to determine comparativevalues, which facilitate the consumer's purchase decision.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well asa preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, willbe understood best by reference to the following detailed description ofan illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the internal configuration of a computer having thecomputer program of the present invention loaded into memory;

FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art architecture for connecting varioushardware devices to create a network for transferring data from onecomputer to another;

FIG. 3A depicts the interaction of merchants and consumers with apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B depicts the interaction of merchants and consumers with analternative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a preferred embodiment and new capabilities of theimproved financial management software; and

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the invention in whichthe financial management software is used to compare product pricesbased upon information received from a bank after the purchases havebeen made.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The principles of the present invention are applicable to a variety ofcomputer hardware and software configurations. The term “computerhardware” or “hardware,” as used herein, refers to any machine orapparatus that is capable of accepting, performing logic operations on,storing, or displaying data, and includes without limitation processorsand memory; the term “computer software” or “software,” refers to anyset of instructions operable to cause computer hardware to perform anoperation. A “computer,” as that term is used herein, includes withoutlimitation any useful combination of hardware and software, and a“computer program” or “program” includes without limitation any softwareoperable to cause computer hardware to accept, perform logic operationson, store, or display data. A computer program may, and often is,comprised of a plurality of smaller programming units, including withoutlimitation subroutines, modules, functions, methods, and procedures.Thus, the functions of the present invention may be distributed among aplurality of computers and computer programs. The invention is describedbest, though, as a single computer program that configures and enablesone or more general-purpose computers to implement the novel aspects ofthe invention. For illustrative purposes, the inventive computer programwill be referred to as the “financial management program.”

Additionally, the financial management program is described below withreference to an exemplary network of hardware devices, as depicted inFIG. 1. A “network” comprises any number of hardware devices coupled toand in communication with each other through a communications medium,such as the Internet. A “communications medium” includes withoutlimitation any physical, optical, electromagnetic, or other mediumthrough which hardware or software can transmit data. For descriptivepurposes, exemplary network 100 has only a limited number of nodes,including workstation computer 105, workstation computer 110, servercomputer 115, and persistent storage 120. Network connection 125comprises all hardware, software, and communications media necessary toenable communication between network nodes 105-120. Unless otherwiseindicated in context below, all network nodes use publicly availableprotocols or messaging services to communicate with each other throughnetwork connection 125.

Financial management program 200 typically is stored in a memory,represented schematically as memory 220 in FIG. 2. The term “memory,” asused herein, includes without limitation any volatile or persistentmedium, such as an electrical circuit, magnetic disk, or optical disk,in which a computer can store data or software for any duration. Asingle memory may encompass and be distributed across a plurality ofmedia. Thus, FIG. 2 is included merely as a descriptive expedient anddoes not necessarily reflect any particular physical embodiment ofmemory 220. As depicted in FIG. 2, though, memory 220 may includeadditional data and programs. Of particular import to financialmanagement program 200, memory 220 may include product database 230,with which financial management program 200 interacts.

FIG. 3A depicts the interaction of merchants and consumers withfinancial management program 200 and product database 230. First, eachmerchant compiles a list of the products they wish to offer to consumers(305). Each list should include the price, availability, and adescription of each product. Each product also should include a uniqueidentifier, such as a Universal Product Code (UPC) or serial number, inorder for products to be properly compared once inserted into thedatabase. In one embodiment, each merchant then provides thisinformation, along with information about the merchant and themerchant's location (e.g. zip code), to a third-party host 310 thatmaintains and updates product database 230. This third-party host, usingfile transfer technology such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), thenperforms the necessary updates to product database 230. File transfertechnologies are well known in the art and need not be described furtherhere. In an alternative embodiment, each merchant directly inserts theirrespective product list into product database 230.

Generally, merchants should update their product information on aregular basis to ensure that product database 230 contains up-to-date,reliable information. In alternate embodiments, merchants may submitupdates daily to the third-party host, or the third-party host mayprovide an automated process that allows a merchant to update productinformation through a website or client program. These methods are wellknown for those in the art and need not be described further here.

As illustrated in FIG. 3A, a consumer begins the shopping process bycompiling a shopping list and entering the list into financialmanagement program 200 (325). The shopping list comprises products thatthe consumer desires to purchase. The consumer may specify genericproducts, such as “milk” or “bread,” or may specify brand name products.Additionally, the consumer may include preferred geographical shoppinglimits. For example, the consumer may limit the shopping area to aspecific zip code, area code, or neighborhood.

Once the consumer's shopping list is complete, the consumer submits theshopping list to the third-party host via financial management program200 (330). The host then queries product database 230 for the productsin the shopping list (335). If the consumer has designated a preferredgeographical shopping area, the host likewise limits the query tomerchants within the preferred shopping area. The host then returns thequery results to financial management program 200 (340). Financialmanagement program 200 then processes the query results to determine theminimum cost to the consumer if the consumer purchased all products froma single merchant and the minimum cost of each product without regard tomerchant (345). Financial management program 200 also may generatedynamic reports and informational charts on spending habits, costcomparison, and other purchase-related data. Such reports provide manybenefits to the consumer, including the ability to determine whichproviders consistently offer the lowest prices on products that theconsumer routinely purchases. Determining such consistency, in turn,allows a consumer to make informed decisions on where to purchaseproducts, even if the consumer cannot access financial managementprogram 200 immediately. Financial management program 200 then displaysthe processing results to the consumer (345), and the consumer selectsthe preferred products and merchants. In a preferred embodiment,financial management program 200 additionally queries product database230 to determine the number of preferred products that the preferredmerchant has available. Financial management program 200 then interfaceswith the preferred merchant's transaction processing system, therebyallowing the consumer to place an order with the preferred merchant forthe preferred products through financial management program 200.

FIG. 3B depicts an alternative embodiment of the present invention, inwhich the consumer accesses product database 230 through a web-basedapplication. In this embodiment, the consumer compiles the shopping listand submits it to a server through a web browser (350), rather thanfinancial management program 200. Either the third-party host or yetanother independent web host may operate the server. Regardless, theserver then transmits the consumer's list to the third-party host (355).The third-party host then queries product database 230 for the productsin the shopping list (360) and returns the query results to the webbrowser via the server (365). The web browser then processes the queryresults, as described above. The browser then displays the results tothe consumer (370), generates a data file that financial managementprogram 200 can import (390) for further processing, or both.

FIG. 4 illustrates the interaction between financial management program200 and various hardware devices, after the third-party host hasreturned the query results. Computer 420 represented in FIG. 4illustrates the primary method of viewing the data returned and createdby this invention. A consumer can use computer 420, properly configuredby financial management program 200, to perform the initial actions ofthe comparison shopping process, including preparing a shopping list.Additionally, the consumer can use financial management program 200 todetermine if the shopping list conforms to a household budget. Computer420 also is operable to transfer data to mobile hardware devices (425),such as Personal Data Assistant (PDA) 430. PDA 430 and other mobilecomputing devices allow consumers to take the query results andprocessed information with them to the merchant, which in turn allowsthe consumer to verify that the prices of the products in the merchant'sstore match the prices offered through product database 230 and thatpurchase decisions conform to budgets and plans. Additionally, theconsumer may print the query results and processed information (435),which the consumer also may take to the merchant. The printedinformation provides the same benefits as PDA 430.

FIG. 5 illustrates another embodiment of the invention. In thisembodiment, the consumer purchases products from a merchant's store(510). The merchant then transmits transaction data, including productprices, descriptions, quantity, and UPCs to the consumer's bank (515).The consumer subsequently can use financial management program 200 toretrieve the transaction data from the bank (520). The consumer then maycompare this transaction data with data in product database 230 (525),which allows the consumer to compare the prices of purchased products toanother merchant's prices, as well as compare current prices withhistorical prices. Financial management program 200 calculates the costof the transaction at each store, returning both a dollar and percentagesavings on the purchased products, so that the consumer can determinewhether the savings on the products, or a subset of products, is worthmaking additional trips to other stores, rather than paying a premiumprice to a merchant offering all of the requested products.

A preferred form of the invention along with several alternativeembodiments have been shown in the drawings and described above, butvariations in the preferred form will be apparent to those skilled inthe art. The preceding description is for illustrative purposes only,and the invention should not be construed as limited to the specificform shown and described. The scope of the invention should be limitedonly by the language of the following claims.

1. A process for comparing a plurality of merchants' prices forproducts, the process comprising the steps of: inserting into a databaseeach merchant's prices; purchasing a product; transmitting the purchaseprice to a bank; receiving the purchase price from the bank; receivingthe merchant prices from the database; matching the purchased productwith all corresponding merchant prices in the database; and determiningthe difference between the purchase price and each correspondingmerchant price; whereby a consumer can compare the purchase price witheach merchant's offered price for the same product.
 2. The process ofclaim 1 further comprising the step of designating a preferred merchantlocation; wherein the merchant prices retrieved are limited to pricesoffered by merchants within the preferred merchant location.
 3. Theprocess of claim 1 further comprising the step of determining themaximum difference between the purchase price and the correspondingmerchant prices.
 4. The process of claim 2 further comprising the stepof determining the maximum difference between the purchase price and thecorresponding merchant prices.